More than a half dozen SBISD teachers and staff lined up on a weather-perfect morning on Jan. 13 for the 36th running of the Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston Half Marathon. Many ran for good reasons, in addition to fantastic health benefits.
A marathon is 26.2 miles. Its name comes from the ancient legend of Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, who was sent from the town of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon.
Health fitness instructor Judy Gordon of Nottingham Elementary School finished her sixth marathon this year. She ran with campus prekindergarten teacher Julie Campbell, who has run four marathons now. Judy and Julie are also volunteer coaches with the Katy Fit running group, which began training last July.
“The marathon is a challenge, but it is very rewarding to cross over that finish line,” Judy says. Her best time is 4 hours, 56 minutes. For marathoners, every finish is one for the book of personal records.
Many marathon memories are special. For Kate Evetts, a second-grade teacher at Rummel Creek Elementary, finishing the Half Marathon was a warm-up exercise. “I plan to run the full marathon next year! We did this to honor my mother-in-law, Becky Evetts, who used to teach in Spring Branch as well as serve as an assistant principal for Spring Forest and Rummel Creek before she was diagnosed and then passed four years later of pancreatic cancer.”
At Memorial Middle, dyslexia teacher Leslie Russell finished her 12th Houston Marathon. She has run 20 separate marathons, including the famous and highly competitive Boston Marathon. Health Fitness teacher and coach Jessica Nella celebrated her first marathon with a time of 4 hours, 27 minutes and 20 seconds, placing her in the top 1,000 female category.
Other SBISD staff members who reported finishing this year’s races include Westwood Elementary school nurse Chris Friesen, Spring Forest Middle teacher Jo Ballard, a pair of Hunters Creek Elementary second-grade teachers, and formre Human Resources Records Department Supervisor Marissa Duque.
This year’s races were expected to raise $1 million for 44 charities under the Run for a Reason charity program. More than 23,000 runners took part in four marathon weekend events, including a 5K and children’s run.